OLETA RIVER STATE PARK

The Oleta River State Park is a 1,043-acre Florida State Park on Biscayne Bay in the municipal suburb of North Miami in metropolitan Miami, Florida.

The central feature of this park is the mouth of the Oleta River, for which it is named. The river has drawn human inhabitants to the area since about 500 B.C, when its shores served as a campground for Tequesta Indians. It was used by U.S. troops (who called it Big Snake Creek) in 1841 during the Second Seminole War, and further explored in 1881 by NavalCaptain William Hawkins Fulford, whose ventured inland to what is now the city of North Miami Beach. The area became more heavily settled in the 1890s and in 1922, developers changed the name from Big Snake Creek to the Oleta River.